News

Ken Green not only killed it, he squashed it like a bug.  Don’t even think about mustering up a rebuttal to this gem. AEI (8/28/12) reports: “So let us, once again, review why a carbon tax is a bad idea: 1) Taxes on carbon are not simply taxes on consumption, they’re a tax on production as well, since energy is a primary input to production (and is a growing share because of increasing automation). Taxing both production and consumption seems like a poor way to stimulate your economy, reduce your costs of production, or make your exports more competitive.”

Waiver requests on the RFS are starting to rattle investors?  The RFS itself has been a disaster for the economy, for fuel efficiency, for the environment.  I’m glad someone is getting rattled. The Hill (8/28/12) reports: “Biofuels groups said Tuesday that political pressure from governors to waive the renewable fuel standard (RFS) this year is starting to strain the industry by sending “instability signals” to investors.”

First off, who wrote this for him?  Second, I guess the world is easy when you are a rich-kid punk.  But consumers actually prefer affordable, reliable energy.  And workers like to have jobs.NYTimes (8/27/12) reports: “ON the northern tip of Delaware County, N.Y., where the Catskill Mountains curl up into little kitten hills, and Ouleout Creek slithers north into the Susquehanna River, there is a farm my parents bought before I was born. My earliest memories there are of skipping stones with my father and drinking unpasteurized milk. There are bald eagles and majestic pines, honeybees and raspberries. My mother even planted a ring of white birch trees around the property for protection.”

It’s actually scary to read this, because it makes you think that someone in the current Administration is trying to undermine American prosperity and security. Governor Sean Parnell (8/24/12) reports: “At this critical juncture, Alaska is prepared to supply our nation with employment as well as a secure source of domestic energy, only to be thwarted repeatedly by federal actions designed to impede our progress. Evidence shows the blame lies not with industry, but with the Obama Administration’s agenda to prevent oil and gas production on federal lands.”

Normally, this is called vandalism. On Wednesday, you’ll be encouraged to sign the bus, while also enjoying beef tenderloin and seafood for lunch. AEA invites you to join Stephen Moore, Senator John Barrasso, Representative Mike Pompeo, and Thomas Pyle, President of AEA for a free market energy forum on Wednesday, August 29^th, at 11:30 in Liberty Plaza.

Perhaps not the largest surprise we’ve ever experienced. USA Today(8/27/12) reports: “It would be the second interruption in production for the Volt, which can go 38 miles on battery power before needing a recharge from its gasoline engine. GM late Monday disputed published reports that the move is because of slow Volt sales.”

 
The Romney crew is only going to have trouble flipping some of these regulations if they hire the same batch of “moderates” that the Bush Administration did.  Yes, we mean guys like Boyden Gray and Jim Connaughton. National Journal (8/27/12) reports: “For all the Republican rhetoric about President Obama’s “war on coal,” there isn’t really a lot that Mitt Romney could do as Obama’s successor to turn around the decline in an industry that has long been the mainstay of the nation’s power supply.”
 
Jack Gerard would be a great chief of staff or Secretary of Interior or even Energy.  He would definitely be better than some of the horrible names that are being kicked around now. Politico (8/27/12) reports: “American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard on Monday dismissed scuttlebutt that he could serve a senior role in a Mitt Romney administration… “Washington silly talk,” Gerard told POLITICO in an interview on the first official day of the Republican National Convention.”

We couldn’t say it any better: “This project is not just a pipeline; it’s a lifeline for American working men and women.” Oklahoman (8/25/12) reports:

Abundance or scarcity.  Growth or destruction.  The choice could not be clearer. Human Events (8/26/12) reports: “While President Barack Obama rails against fossil fuels and supports billions of dollars in new spending for experimental sources of energy, Romney and running mate Paul Ryan support the development of the country’s natural resources as the foundation for a growing and modern economy.”

 
We have been taking a lot of heat from our friends at AEI about this sort of thing.  So we offer this without comment.  NYTimes (8/25/12) reports: The good news is that we could insulate ourselves from catastrophic risk at relatively modest cost by enacting a steep carbon tax. Early studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that a carbon tax of up to $80 per metric ton of emissions — a tax that might raise gasoline prices by 70 cents a gallon — would eventually result in climate stability. But because recent estimates about global warming have become more pessimistic, stabilization may require a much higher tax. How hard would it be to live with a tax of, say, $300 a ton?

 
There’s still a chance to RSVP for our event in Tampa. Issac will not be in attendence, but we promise it will still be an exciting lunch. August 29^th, 11:30am: “Stephen Moore, editorial board member and senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, will lead a panel discussion in a lively debate on America’s energy future. With vast energy resources and advances in technology to unlock them, America has the potential to lead the world in energy production and spark a reviatlization of the manufacturing industry.”

This is the beat of the drum that we are marching to.

Look, we get that Alex Flint is working Harry Reid’s side of the street.  But Mitt Romney is a Mormon, too.  Maybe Alex should throw him a bone occasionally. Politico (8/23/12) reports: Many of Romney’s other energy ideas also come with catches. If approved in its entirety, the Keystone pipeline that’s been central to the GOP political agenda would give Canada access to world markets with its tar sands oils — not the direct line into American gas tanks that Republicans often suggest. The Canadians, Hakes said, “want it so they can export to other places.”

In what is otherwise an excellent document, this an unfortunate blemish.  I feel the presence of the dark side; or, as we prefer to call him, Jim Connaughton.  Seriously, the Romney crew needs to cut loose some of the dead wood from the previous, failed, unlamented Administration.  Politico (8/23/12) reports: Mitt Romney is again lending his weight behind an EPA renewable fuels mandate that has been under increasing criticism from both the left and right amid widespread droughts and spiking corn prices.

Tough to see how this turns out well for Dr. Mann.  But it will be fun watching Lowry and Steyn take the wrecking ball to him. National Review (8/22/12) reports: Mann is upset — very, very upset — with this Mark Steyn Corner post, which had the temerity to call Mann’s hockey stick “fraudulent.” The Steyn post was mild compared with other things that have been said about the notorious hockey stick, and, in fact, it fell considerably short of an item about Mann published elsewhere that Steyn quoted in his post.

This ran yesterday, but we wanted to make sure you saw it.  We don’t think this looks corrupt at all. AP (7/22/12) reports: A veteran Wall Street executive who performed an independent review that exonerated the Obama administration’s program of loans to energy companies contributed $52,500 to re-elect President Barack Obama in the months since completing his work, according to an Associated Press review of campaign records. The executive defended the integrity of his conclusions and said he decided to donate to Obama after his work was finished.

Does George Clooney know about this? Care2 (7/9/12) reports: Dead bats are turning up beneath wind turbines all over the world. Bat fatalities have now been documented at nearly every wind facility in North America where adequate surveys for bats have been conducted, and several of these sites are estimated to cause the deaths of thousands of bats per year.

In a sea of chaos, an island of reason. AEA (August 29, 2012) hosts: “Stephen Moore, editorial board member and senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, will lead a panel discussion in a lively debate on America’s energy future.
With vast energy resources and advances in technology to unlock them, America has the potential to lead the world in energy production and spark a revitalization of the manufacturing industry.”
 
You know what is really going to lead to societal collapse?  Terrible anti-energy votes by Congressmen. Bangor Daily News(8/20/12) reports: “There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability,” Bartlett predicts in “Urban Danger,” a documentary that features the cabin tour. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families.”
 
Shale gas will cut U.S. wind, solar energy demand, Barclays report says (and that’s why the Sierra Club is now anti-gas because nat gas is now inexpensive, and unlike wind and solar, reliable). E&ENews (8/21/12) reports: “Barclays analysts lowered their forecast for wind demand in the United States by 12 percent for 2014 and 9 percent for 2015 because of a greater share of shale gas in the U.S. energy mix.”
 
Energy and Commerce is very solid.  Now on to the Utility MACT.Energy & Commerce (8/21/12) reports: “Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee welcomed today’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to block implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, one of several stringent new EPA rules affecting power plants that are expected to drive electricity prices higher and put jobs at risk.”
 
A regulatory swap?  No one is talking about that.  And none of the bad guys would offer automobile mandates, the RFS, all efficiency standards, and the GHG regs in exchange for a tax that some nominal Republicans are already planning for without even considering such a trade. Greenwire (8/21/12) reports: “The R-Street Institute is allegedly free-market and limited government, but you have to wonder then their founder says about a carbon tax, “If it’s a true tax and regulatory swap, I don’t see any reason why conservatives wouldn’t support it.” Does Lehrer really believe that the federal government will remove CAFE standards, all energy efficiency standards, the ethanol mandate, the cellulosic ethanol mandate, AND not increase taxes with a carbon tax. They must be smoking some fun stuff up on R-Street.”
 
Is anyone missing here?  Other than coal guys (40% of electricity), natural gas guys (Boone most definitely does not count; he is just a plutocrat), or actual Republicans? Politico (August 2012) reports: “Guests: Alliance to Save Energy’s Kateri Callahan; American Petroleum Institute’s Martin Durbin; Nuclear Energy Institute’s Alex Flint; energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens; and Solar Energy Industries Association’s Rhone Resch.”
 
Yikes, Here is Boone again.  I wonder if he is going to pimp the NAT GAS Act.  I really wonder who puts these things together for the Republican convention.  Are they aware that the caucus rejected Boone’s plan pretty much en masse? Business Wire (8/17/12) reports: “Guest speakers and moderators will include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, oil and gas executive, financier and billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens and former Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Cass Sunstein.”
 
I wonder if Heathcliff and Cathy preferred bird-killing, expensive, unreliable energy? Daily Mail (8/19/12) reports: “And now campaigners opposing plans for a wind farm near Haworth, West Yorkshire, are facing a war on two fronts, as another energy firm attempts to place turbines on the landscape at the heart of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.”